Ben McKenzie Thinks Twitter Will "Stick Around For Awhile"

Ben McKenzie's all grown up. He'll always be Ryan to us, but The O.C. and Southland star is gearing up for quite a different role—Batman. McKenzie may not be ousting Christian Bale from Christopher Nolan's franchise, but he is lending his voice to the animated version of Frank Miller's original graphic novel, Batman: Year One. We chatted with the actor about running lines with his dogs and recent entree into the Twitter-verse.

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ELLE: So your dog Oscar is your go-to scene partner?BEN MCKENZIE: Yeah, yeah, which I'm sure an acting coach would have huge issues with, because you're taught that when you are acting, you're acting with someone and it's very important to listen to them. You're not just running your lines. Acting is reacting. However, my method is quite the opposite, which is you just use the dog, who has no reaction whatsoever, and obviously doesn't say anything and never knows his lines. It's just to try to have a captive audience. There are limited opportunities to have a captive audience.

ELLE: Well, you recently joined Twitter and already have a sizable following. Isn't that a captive audience?
BM: I don't know. I'm curious. This Twitter thing seems like it's going to stick around for a while. It's a good way to communicate with people who are fans and just fellow people in the world. It's cool to be able to follow other people I like and get a little comedy everyday from that.

ELLE: Who are you following that makes you laugh?BM:@BoBurnham. Very, very funny. I did a movie with him last year. There's @theSulk and @FriendFromHS is pretty funny. It's somebody pretending to be your friend from high school.

ELLE: Speaking of funny, how'd you hook up with Funny or Die?
BM: It just kind of came about organically. A buddy of mine [Christopher Storer] is from Chicago, and he's friends with Jeff and Sue Tweedy. Jeff's, you know, the lead singer of Wilco. His son—their son—Spencer, has his own band, The Blisters. I was spit balling with Chris and he came up with the idea. It was an opportunity to do something funny—I don't think people think of me as funny. They're not completely wrong about that, but I am capable given the opportunity. The Internet's great for that. It allows you to put up whatever you want and your only responsibility is to not suck.

ELLE: Do you feel like that's become another part of your job?
BM: I'm a pretty, sort of shy, quiet, introverted guy but the world that we live in and the entertainment business as it's evolving is turning into a situation where you really have to be much more—to overuse an overused term—proactive. You really have to create content yourself and put yourself out there and show that you're capable of a variety of things, because the opportunities aren't just going to come to you.

ELLE: Were you sent tons of romantic comedy scripts after The O.C.?
BM: No, not really. There were teen comedy things, which I really wasn't that into. What I like about doing comedy is that in some ways, it's more fun. Drama is taxing, emotionally, for me. Comedy is more enjoyable and feels more like play and in some sense, comedies are more honest. Particularly, the new round of "R" rated ones. They're honest in the sense of how crude we all are. Or that element that is inside of us that we repress for politeness sake. So that could be kind of fun to play around with...